Australia’s Armor
This month’s Military spotlight is on The Republic of Greater Australia and New Zealand. Their government was kind enough to give us an overview and a look at their Armor division. I was joined by William Birdwood the Second, who is the General of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, or ANZAC, which is the Army division of the Australian Military. He showed me around the ANZAC base and gave me as indepth a look he could give me at the various tanks, Australian Military doctrine, and even a new weapon system that Australia has decided to unveil to the world.
Before we continue we should take a look at Australian Military doctrine. General Birdwood stated that Australia’s military doctrine hinges on two things. Rapid Response and Precision strikes. In other words the goal of Australia’s military is to be able to quickly and effectively deploy and engage in enemy troops and to take them out through strategic strikes through the use of various means if necessary, for a large island nation like Australia this sort of doctrine makes sense, get into the fight quickly when needed, and take out a key target when not. All of Australia’s tanks follow this doctrine in one way or another, and the first tank we will look at is no exception.
The Echidna is the least armored and armed of the Australian Armor fleet, it is very cheap to produce and has below average armor. However this tank was not designed for tank on tank combat. No this tank was designed specifically for island use. Armed with 2 high explosive missiles for destroying concrete bases or other light tanks along with a laser guidance system for them, and a 25 mm Chain gun. This tank is designed specifically to fight in jungle and island Terrain and to give the ANZAC Infantry men support in the event that an island attack is needed. The armor is almost paper thin, but is strong enough to resist basic small arms fire, which should be perfectly fine with where it is to be deployed. In addition to this the Tank is semi amphibious, being able to land on a beach with infantry and able to cross over shallow patches of water and continue to fight. The 25 mm Chain gun can also be swapped out for a flamethrower if needed, but it is unlikely due to the stigma that flame weapons have in this day and age, but the ability to if the need arises is still present in the machine. The Echidna is also the oldest tank in Australia’s arsenal based mostly on repurposed pre catastrophe designs and weapons, however this machine still serves as an effective and fast responding tank for what it is designed to do.
The Second tank we will look at is the Wombat Heavy Tank, this tank has been the workhorse of Australian Armor for quite some time, and was considered the Main Battle Tank of the country up until very recently. This tank was the first to be completely and independently created by Australian engineers, while it still takes influences from pre catastrophe tanks, the majority of its overall design and function was created solely by Australian engineers. Featuring heavy armor and a 150 mm smoothbore cannon this tank can take the punishment and deal it right back at the enemy armor division. Being able to reach a top speed of 40 MPH the Wombat isn’t the greatest when it comes to speed, but its firepower and armor more than make up for it. A complex tank this weapon is expensive to produce but its strength more than makes up for its cost. Finally it features a targeting laser which can be used to launch a strike missile at an enemy installation. This beast of a machine may not be the largest, fastest, or most heavily armed tank in the world but it has served Australia well and will continue to do so in the decades to come.
Finally, and perhaps the most interesting tank of Australian design is the Koala. This Tank is currently replacing the Wombat as the Main Battle Tank for the Australian military. This revolutionary tank follows Australia’s combat doctrine to a T. Claiming to be the fastest tank in the world this tank can reach speeds of 80 MPH, greatly outperforming any other tank of today. Armed with a 105 mm smoothbore cannon it doesn’t pack as big a punch as the Wombat, but it more than makes up for its shortcomings with it’s speed. A technological breakthrough this tank features advance lightweight armor that allows both survivability and speed in a combat situation. With simple replaceable and interchangeable parts this advanced tank is expensive to build but cheap, easy, and quick to put together. However, its number one most important feature is its ability to be paradropped right onto the battlefield. Its lightweight and strong design allow for the tank to be paradropped from a cargo plane and can rush right into battle, allowing for quick reinforcements right onto the battlefield, this along with it’s speed allows the Koala to easily outmaneuver and flank enemy tank positions creating one of the greatest infantry support vehicles of all time. Like all other Australian tanks the Koala does come with a Laser guidance system that can be used to mark priority targets for destruction by a laser guided strike missile, however the Koala’s is conveniently hidden from sight. This brings me to our final and the new weapon that Australia has just recently unveiled to the world.
The SD-1 "Sittella" Class Strike Drone! This drone was co-developed with Indonesia and is the first in Australia’s Drone Fleet. Carrying 4 Long range Air-to-Surface tactical missiles this drone can add additional fire support to Infantry or Tank Battalions. Small and Fast this Drone can’t take much of a beating but it won’t need to as the range of the Missiles allow the Sittella to remain out of range of most anti air weapons. The Missiles themselves contain 57 kg of Explosives and are laser guided, allowing all tanks in the Australian Armor fleet to call in a Drone Strike. Because each drone carries 4 Missiles the drone will usually be launched and sent to the combat zone waiting for when a strike is needed, this allows for a much faster strike with exactly the amount of missiles needed. The Sittella is a Semi autonomous AI, allowing it to remain in the air for the majority of a battle, the only time when a human is behind the wheel is take off, and when one orders a strike through the use of a strike order, which is usually done by a tank commander. When issued a strike order the Drone will immediately position itself and fire a Missile in the direction from where the order came from, the missile will then use basic GPS to pinpoint where it needs to go, once the missile detects its target through the use of a laser guide it will then immediately course correct towards the target. However these weapons can still be used like a traditional strike drone, being flown by a traditional operator, and the missiles can also be fired by the operator, when fired like this the missiles don't need laser guidance, but it helps.
Thank you for joining us yet again for our monthly Military Spotlight. I would also like to thank the Australian government for their hospitality and for sharing with us these amazing weapons. Join us next month for our next spotlight.
